Research School Network: A Spotlight on Secondary Science How the Improving Secondary Science Guidance Report is being used to enhance teaching across one Trust in Stoke on Trent.

Dr. James Bullous is a Vice Principal with responsibility for Teaching and Learning at a large secondary school in Stoke-on-Trent and the Director of Science across the City Learning Trust. James describes how he has put the EEF Guidance Report for Improving Secondary Science into action and suggests practical approaches to how this might look in the classroom. You can follow his work at @DrB_SciTeacher

In this blog, I wanted to provide a practical summary of the 2018Improving Secondary Science Guidance Report and how it links to my experiences as a Lead Practitioner in a Secondary Science department. The Guidance Report contains 7 key recommendations that centre around Teaching for Engagement, alongside a strong thread of metacognition and self-regulation throughout. They provide a practical and achievable approach to further enhancing science teaching. This piece primarily focuses on the 3 recommendations. They are Memory, Practical Work, and Language of Science.

Recommendation 4 – Memory and Cognition
Long-term memory can be considered as a ​‘store of knowledge’. Working memory is where information that is being actively processed is held – it is where ​‘thinking’ happens. Information in your long-term memory is stored in schemas: a schema is a pattern of thought that organises categories of information, and the links between them. Any task that exceeds the limit of the working memory will result in cognitive overload and this increases the possibility that the content may be discarded, misunderstood or not effectively encoded in the long-term memory. Worryingly, if cognitive overload occurs, anything being processed within the working memory can be lost…and requires reprocessing!

Practical ways to reduce cognitive load in lessons:

• Structure complex tasks so as to not overload the working memory. Scaffold learning by limiting the volume of new information that students are expected to process at any one time. Plan lesson sequences so that any necessary background knowledge is covered in advance. This could include the none essential ​‘story telling’ (#hinterland and #sciencestories) to set foundations for new knowledge.
• Avoid splitting attention by ensuring pupils do not need to refer to multiple sources to complete a task. This can often be seen in the design of ​‘busy’ textbooks and in teacher worksheets. I am a big advocate of the use of visualisers and when drawing diagrams or presenting information, paying careful attention to the careful integration of images and text and a degree of self-discipline as the ​‘expert’, so the we avoid overwhelming students with too much information (and overload). In the diagram of the hearts above, a) integrates the text and diagram, thus preventing the need for students to split their attention between the diagram, list of labels and letters in diagram b. Put simply, diagram b reduces the cognitive load. There has been some excellent work on this for visual practicals and I will link that in the next recommendation.
• Use worked examples or partially solved examples that take pupils through each step of a process. Integrate metacognition to build memory sequentially. This will involve Breaking down tasks so that pupils tackle it step-by-step, writing down what they know at each step, before tackling the next step.
• Ensure pupils commit important and frequently used pieces of information to their long-term memory. Retrieval practice involves retrieving something you have learnt in the past and bringing it back to mind. Research suggests that engaging students in higher-order retrieval practice is more effective than fact based-quizzes (Argawal, 2018)

Further reading – Learning Scientists website

Recommendation 5 – Practical Work

Practical science is an excellent tool to engage pupils and has the potential to be one of the most powerful aspects of science teaching, but in my experience, is not always used to its full potential. Students to be ​‘minds on’ as well as ​‘hands on’ and tuned in to the point and purpose of the practical work, in order for it to be most effective in the lab. This requires clarity and emphasis to be a prominent feature of pedagogy, particularly around the purpose for choosing a particular activity. Its purpose goes beyond scientific entertainment. There are a multitude of advantages of practical work, including:

• The development specific skills such as measurement and observation, that may be useful in future study or employment
• Motivation to learn and a platform to launch new interest from as a new ​‘wow’ moment is experienced, and to test theories out in the real world and apply critical thinking
• Developing higher level skills and attributes such as communication, teamwork and perseverance. 

I feel the main limit to the effectiveness of practicals lie in the cognitive overload (that can very easily occur) and/​or a lack of structured task planning. How often have we heard ​“I don’t know what I am doing” or ​“what do I do next sir?”. To combat this, I use two techniques.

1. Graphical organisers to allow students to plan and understand the how and why of practical. I have previously written about these in more detail here­
2. Visual practical guidance resources. These are an excellent resource I have seen provided by @adamboxer1 (here) and @dave2004b (here). They both simplify and scaffold at the same time and dovetail a combination of practical skills and cognitive load theory to ensure students gain clarity and stand the best chance to learn effectively from practicals.
   
   Further reading Holman, J. (2017) Good Practical Science, London: Gatsby Foundation.39

Recommendation 6 – Language of Science

Teaching students become competent in the language of science is an essential component of teaching and learning. We are all teachers of literacy and it is disciplinary literacy that under exam scrutiny will determine the extent to which students are successful in Science. This can be achieved through the use of etymology to share the meaning of words or parts of words to link to learning. Recently, for example, when students were asking why the anode and the cathode change charge in cells, I was able to explain the meaning of an- (up) and cath- (down) and ‑ode (path) to simply explain the route of the electrons. Exothermic and endothermic are also fantastic to stress to students as they don’t need to remember which is which if they read the word literally as exo-thermic (outside-heat) and endo-thermic (inside-heat).

Focus on keywords in topics and ensure students understand these words. We also need to consider words that have specific meanings in the context of science that differ to words that students may have come across in other lived experiences (i.e. field, valid, random, variable, continuous) and highlight these explicitly to students, encouraging them to use regularly verbally and in written work. 

Further reading – Wellington, J. and Osborne, J. (2001) Language and literacy in science education (2011 ed.), Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Pressurised.

Reference

Argawal, P (2019) Retrieval Practice & Bloom’s Taxonomy: Do Students Need Fact Knowledge Before Higher Order Learning? Journal of Educational Psychology, 2019, Vol. 111, No. 2, 189 – 209

The full Guidance Report and set of recommendations can be downloaded for free here – Improving Secondary Science Guidance Report. For a more comprehensive insight into James’ work and practical application of the EEF’s Guidance Reports, you can read more here.